Author Archives: admin

PHOTOGRAPHING THE COMMON REDPOLL

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649-14-21What a joy it is to observe common redpolls every day all winter long.  When the bottom drops out of the thermometer they go about their cheerful, lively routine seemingly without regard to Interior Alaska’s dangerous temperatures.  Redpolls are active from first light until sunset.  Even at fifty below you will find them busy, usually in small groups feeding among bushes. But where they spend the nights is a mystery to me. They have been reported to spend some nights in snow burrows, like ptarmigan. Continue reading →

MARCH MOOSE

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5-14-8The arrival of March in Interior Alaska is a wonderful change.  Temperatures generally don’t stray much below twenty below F and the light is increasing by about thirty five minutes a week.  It’s a great time to be out. Moose don’t really mind the cold in fact they might seek the shade even at fifty below zero because their huge bodies produce so much heat. Continue reading →

WILLOW PTARMIGAN

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I’ve spent the last four afternoons looking for willow ptarmigan.  One of my photographic goals is to document more of their interesting behavior.  On top of that list of photo wants are photos of willow ptarmigan in their snow burrows.  Ptarmigan use snow to help insulate them against the frigid winter temperatures of interior Alaska.  Their use of snow burrows can occur any time of the day but most common as they prepare to roost for the night.  Willow ptarmigan are cyclic and their numbers have been quite low over the past two or three winters.  But as Justin pointed out, they seem to be bouncing back. Continue reading →

WINTER WHITETAILS

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IdahoNumerous springs keep miles of the North Fork of the Snake River ice free all winter.

Elk and mule deer have deserted the high country.  To be sure a very few have either tried to winter here or perhaps did not migrate soon enough and were stranded by heavy snow.  But their odds for survival are poor for they are not adapted to this heavy snow country like moose. Continue reading →

HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT

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518-12-100 A group of willow ptarmigan huddle beneath a willow in Alaska.

It seems hiding in plain sight would be risky business in our hostile and unforgiving world.  But few strategies for survival are as effective as camouflage.  Countless species of wildlife including birds, mammals, reptiles, fish, insects have adapted diverse methods of camouflage for offense as well as defense. Continue reading →

SNOWSHOE HARE

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ON THE TRACK OF THE SNOWSHOE HARE
28-50-26_snowshoehareA snowshoe hare watches his backtrail.

In the far north snowshoe hares are trapped in an eternal cycle. A ten year cycle of life and death, of peak and crash, of  predator and prey. Currently snowshoes are at the bottom of their population cycle.  Predator species like the northern goshawk, northern hawk owl, and lynx crash a year or two after the hares.  When the hare population is low they can still be found in bunny patches, small pockets of prime habitat. Thickets of mixed forests, spruce, poplar and willow are sanctuaries where a few hares somehow manage to survive extremely heavy pressure from predators. In lodgepole forests of eastern Idaho, my old stompin grounds, the snowshoe hares did not seem to go through the extreme population peak and crash. Continue reading →